Chapter 7:

Call to Action


What Every Health Care Executive Should Know:
The Cost of Antibiotic Resistance


Stephen Weber, M.D., M.S.

Assistant Professor
Section of Infectious Diseases
Medical Director of Infection Control and Clinical Quality
University of Chicago Medical Center – Infection Prevention and Control Services
JCR Consultant

Barbara M. Soule, RN, MPA, CIC

Practice Leader Infection Prevention and Control
Joint Commission Resources / Joint Commission International

Why you? Why now?

Institutional chief executives are uniquely positioned to contribute to the end of the era of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance has been growing since the first resistant organisms were detected soon after the introduction of penicillin in the 1950s. Since that time, many efforts have attempted to curb the spread of antibiotic resistance with limited success:


  • Individual clinicians, medical educators, and professional societies, with knowledge of the contribution of antibiotic misuse to the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), have undertaken efforts to promote the appropriate use of antibiotics. However, new MDROs continue to emerge.


  • An entirely new profession—infection prevention and control and health care epidemiology—has been founded, matured, and now flourishes. Their recognition of the significance of cross-transmission of MDROs in hospitals has resulted in the development and promotion of many risk-reduction strategies. However, health care workers still fail to embrace the most basic measures for prevention, and MDROs continue to spread.



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